


Ingenious Island

by Aardwolf_Zach



Category: NINE PERCENT (Band), THE9 (Band)
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Battle Royale Fusion, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Video Game World, Battle, Battlefield, Blood and Injury, Character Development, Enemies to Friends, Fanfiction, Fiction, Friends to Enemies, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Injury, Major Character Injury, Male-Female Friendship, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Minor Character Death, Minor Injuries, Minor Original Character(s), Minor Violence, My First AO3 Post, My First Fanfic, My First Work in This Fandom, Mystery, Other, Out of Character, Romantic Friendship, Science Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Secret Identity, Secret Identity Fail, Secret Organizations, Slice of Life, Strategy & Tactics, Survival, Wilderness Survival, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:13:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29257260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aardwolf_Zach/pseuds/Aardwolf_Zach
Summary: Ten famous Chinese entertainers got chosen to attend the tour concert, but on the flight from Beijing to Los Angeles, their private aircraft lost control and crashed into an uninhabited island. However, this is not a normal island, the island is created by a secret organization, which these ten people forcefully got dragged into and participated in the survival game. Little did they know, this game they are partaking in is also broadcast under the name “Ingenious Island” an illegal show, which got the most attention globally only to certain members. People who participate in the game were voted to join despite knowing about it or not. This leads to the current situation where each nation in a group of random numbers of people is forced to join an endless battle. Whether they can escape the island or not, only time can tell.
Kudos: 2





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> To let everyone know beforehand, this will be a long story, and every characters in the introduction are all main characters, but the plot will be more leaning toward some certain characters depending on how the story goes and how important they are in their own role. However, I will involve most of the main characters in a chapter, as well as, my original minor characters. Moreover, because this is a fan-fiction, their personalities will be a little altered, but I will also try my best to keep their original personalities as well. Hope you guys who notice this work will give it a try and give some opinions if possible. Pleasure to get to know everyone!
> 
> Another important note, this is just a fan-fiction, so I did some researches and references from a lot of related topic such as games, weapons, and others. If the name of these roles or skills in the story are the same or similar, it is not coincidence. I did take references from them. If this is not permitted even as a fan-works, I will change them, so please let me know.

**Plot Summary:**

Ten famous Chinese entertainers got chosen to attend the tour concert, but on the flight from Beijing to Los Angeles, their private aircraft lost control and crashed into an uninhabited island. However, this is not a normal island, the island is created by a secret organization, which these ten people forcefully got dragged into and participated in the survival game. Little did they know, this game they are partaking in is also broadcast under the name “The Ingenious Island” an illegal show, which got the most attention globally only to certain members. People who participate in the game were voted to join despite knowing about it or not. This leads to the current situation where each nation in a group of random numbers of people is forced to join an endless battle. Whether they can escape the island or not, only time can tell.

**Character Settings:**

  * Cai Xukun, aka Kun, is a gentle and quiet person, but has a clear head under difficult situations. A low-key strategist of the group.



  * Chan Weiting, aka William, is known for his leadership ability in his reality shows. He is the tanker among the teammates.



  * Fan Chengcheng, aka Adam, is known for his humor and a fast learner. Despite being the youngest of the group, he acts as one of the main forces to protect others.



  * Kong Xue’er, aka Snow, has been the closest person to Yuxin and always together whether it is the past or present. Xue’er used to rely on Yuxin and took her for granted until she knew she had to grow up.



  * Liu Yuxin, aka Xin, is a unique person with her own distinguishable style and is known as the girl who overcomes adversity. She consists of a gentle aura and the supporter of the group.



  * Ouyang Nana, aka Nana, takes care of others pretty well despite her hidden cowardice.



  * Wu Jianhao, aka Vanness, is known for his bravery and also the one who takes the most difficult tasks in the group. Because of Yuxin’s background and they have known each other for a long time, he is really fond and pays great attention to her. He is the tactician of the group.



  * Wang Yibo is a person that loves to learn new skills. He has high self esteem, straightforward, and competitive. 



  * Xiao Zhan is the person known for not the one with talent but from hardworking. Despite his gentle self, he is really mature and sees the world differently from others. The logistics of the group.



  * Yu Shuxin, aka Esther, is known as a person with over the top personality. Even so, she is smart, always positive, extremely talkative, and seemingly luckier than most.




	2. Arc 1 - Registration: Chapter 1 - Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry... spare me for my bad writing. English is not my first language. It would be helpful if you guys can help me out for improvement.

Not long ago they were at the studio, doing cypher dance to welcome each other's first upcoming world tour concert. Not like Wang Yibo never had a world tour when he was in his group, but this is his first world tour as a soloist. Feeling excited, yet worry if he can do it well. However, his worry was thrown to the back as Chan Weiting suggested having a dance break so everyone can get familiar to each other. Some of them knew each other well enough and some did not, but after the cyber, everyone laughed and got friendly with each other. Yu Shuxin was trying to be a mood lifter in the group while acting coquettish with her teammate. 

“Yuxin~ feed me?!”

Liu Yuxin looked at the childish Yu Shuxin, giggled then dropped a piece of the chocolate she was about to eat onto Yu Shuxin’s mouth. 

“Alright! Here!”

Kong Xue’er looked at the two teammates being lovey dovey to each other and felt a little left out so she went to Ouyang Nana for comfort, but she saw Cai Xukun was sitting next to Fan Chengcheng, who was also sitting next to Ouyang Nana. Cai Xukun noticed Kong Xue’er coming closer. He nodded and gave her a greeting smile, she greeted back.

“Hello, Kun PD!”

At this time, the other two youngest post-millennials noticed Kong Xue’er, Ouyang Nana jumped up giving her a tight hug.

“Jie~ How is everything going on?”

“Hey~I am doing fine! I miss you guys!”

The door of the studio suddenly opened revealing Xiao Zhan looking around the room.

“Hey guys! Jianhao-ge got the car ready, let’s go!”

Everyone got up from their spot, taking turns to get out of the room while still chattering with each other until the time they got onto the car. After realizing the car they are about to get on is a really luxurious Limousine, everyone stopped their track and felt amazed. Yu Shuxin is the first to break the silence.

“Wow~ so fancy!! This is my first time getting on a super fancy Limousine like this!”

Yu Shuxin said as she jumped up and down tugging along Liu Yuxin’s sleeve hard until revealing half of her shoulder. Fan Chengcheng stood behind them and saw this ridiculous scene and about to laugh out loud when he saw Liu Yuxin struggling to pull her shirt back on, but she gave up since Yu Shuxin never stopped pulling her arm.

“Jie, give Xin a break! You are about to pull down her shirt!

Yu Shuxin quickly released her hand away from Liu Yuxin’s arm when she saw Liu Yuxin’s half exposed shoulder, she then helped Liu Yuxin fix her clothes on properly while laughing her head off.

“Yuxin!! Hahaha you should have let me know! Sorry!”

Liu Yuxin also laughed it off and shook her head.

“It’s alright!”

Everyone got in the car and felt amazed once more. Chan Weiting looked around while mumbling to himself.

“Are we really getting in the right car?”

Liu Yuxin walked past others and stood next to Chan Weiting to join the conversation.

“Eh? Where is Jianhao-ge?”

Chan Weiting also realized he couldn’t find Wu Jiaohao, so he called out to him.

“Hey! Jianhao-ge!”

“Here, Weiting!”

Everyone turned their head toward the direction of the voice. Turns out Wu Jianhao is the driver this time. At the same time, Fan Chengcheng placed his hand on his chest and sighed with relief.

“Thank god I’m not the driver again.” 

Those who watched his recently ended reality show with Liu Yuxin, Ouyang Nana, and Chan Weiting knew about his trauma being a driver. Except for Wang Yibo, everyone laughed so hard, especially Chan Weiting, who put his arm around Fan Chengcheng, asked.

“Do you want to try driving a Limousine?”

“No no no no thanks, I am done with being the driver. Just let Jianhao-ge drive, please!”

Then Fan Chengcheng slightly turned his head toward Wang Yibo and began his complaint.

“Did you know when I was shooting for FOURTRY, my role is being their driver for the whole show? Even when we were on vacation and played the escape room, my character role was still a driver!”

The chatter and jokes did not stop while Wu Jianhao was driving. Sometimes, he even joined in the conversation and talked about how he got to know everyone in the past. 

Finally they arrived at the airport, everyone got off the car, got their own luggages, and ready to walk straight in the boarding area or they might get stuck because too many fans were waiting around the airport. The security guards were making a fence around them to prevent any unexpected situation. Chan Weiting and Wu Jianhao, as the oldest middle aged adult males, also tried to help protect the girls. However, even as a girl, Liu Yuxin was not shy away from her own fans. She slowed her pace so her fans could have the chance to give her letters, and of course, she accepted every single one of it. Xiao Zhan, Wu Jianhao, and Cai Xukun were the one behind her and noticed her action; they also slowed down and helped her take the letters. On the way to the boarding area, no one said anything to each other in case some unexpected news might arise.

An hour later, everyone can finally be at ease inside their private aircraft. They felt tired after all the push and pull from the crowd and soon falling asleep. For another hour after they woke up from an extremely heavy crash, that was also the time their nightmare was about to happen. 


	3. Arc 1 - Registration: Chapter 2 - The Ingenious Island

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to let everyone know that... even though I write this fanfic just for fun, but this work will progress at a moderate slow pace as I want to work on their character development a little further, so please bear with me! 
> 
> Also, I already guess some of you who are a fan of... (you-know-who) already notice who is my bias among the ten of them loll.  
> But do note that everyone I involve in my work are all my favorite idols, which is why everyone is the main character in their own role.
> 
> Thanks anyone for trying to give this a try! Really appreciated!

The first to open his eyes was Chan Weiting, followed by Wu Jianhao; two possibly the strongest in the group. Before the crash happened, Chan Weiting and Wu Jianhao reacted immediately shouting to everyone to get down while they pulled along the ones sitting beside them, which was Liu Yuxin and Ouyang Nana. As a result, the two were unharmed, but due to the heavy crash, everyone was unconscious from the shock. The two conscious people got up and looked around the site, analyzing the situation. 

“Ge, seems like we crashed on some kind of beach.”

Chan Weiting looked out the window only to see sand and ocean. Wu Jianhao also looked out the window on the other side and saw a dense jungle full of trees and mosses. 

“Looks like we crashed at a certain island. Let’s wake everyone up first.”

As he said, Wu Jianhao nudged Liu Yuxin gently.

“Yuxin… Yuxin… Wake up!”

“...Jianhao-ge…?”

“Wake up and try to wake others up too, I will explain the situation later.”

Liu Yuxin still couldn’t comprehend what happened after waking up. Her head hurt and felt hazy, but she tried her best to get up and scanned the situation around her. The sight in front of her made her completely awake and stunned for a while before recalling Wu Jianhao’s words.

“Chengcheng! Chengcheng! Wake up!”

“... Hm…?”

Liu Yuxin tried to wake the one sitting in front of her first, it was Fan Chengcheng’s and Cai Xukun’s seats. She didn’t wait for Fan Chengcheng to completely wake up and started to wake Cai Xukun up next.

“Kunkun! Wake up!”

“...?...”

Both of them woke up then looked for the frantic voices that were just calling their names. 

‘Oh! It was Yuxin.’

They thought. Shaking their head from the pain while waiting for what Liu Yuxin might say next, but she did not say anything and turned to the back seats to check up on her teammates. 

“Shuxin! Xue’er! Wake up! Wake up!”

Her nudging was kind of frantic, because she still had not really grasp the situation.

“...Hm? Yuxin?”

Yu Shuxin opened her eyes. Kong Xue’er at the same time also woke up while holding her head. Liu Yuxin saw Kong Xue’er action and stopped her frantic movement, then gently asked Xue’er.

“How are you feeling?”

“Ugh… my head hurts…”

Liu Yuxin patted slightly on Kong Xue’er’s head to calm her down, at the same time, she also checked on Yu Shuxin to see if there were any injuries. 

“Xin! What’s happened?”

Hearing the voice from behind her, Liu Yuxin looked backward. It was Cai Xukun and Fan Chengcheng, who already got up, looked around and frowned. 

“Seems like we crashed. I am not so sure of the situation either. I also got woken up by Jianhao-ge.”

Then they looked around to find Wu Jianhao and others, but they only found Ouyang Nana, Wang Yibo, and Xiao Zhan were also trying to figure out the situation just like them. They walked toward each other and tried to analyze what had happened. Ouyang Nana ran toward Liu Yuxin, whom she was most familiar to, because she felt insecure. Liu Yuxin also really panicked inside, but she tried to remain as calm as possible or others would also follow suit.

“Did we crash? The outside looks like some kind of island.”

“We also think so.”

“We need to get out of here first, I don’t know what will happen if we keep on staying on this plane.”

Wang Yibo started the conversation with Cai Xukun and led the group toward the emergency door. However, before they went off the plane, Liu Yuxin asked Wang Yibo.

“Wait! Where are Jianhao-ge and Weiting-ge?”

“...They should be browsing the situation outside while waiting for us to wake up.”

“I see…”

Liu Yuxin did not notice the pause before Wang Yibo’s reply and breathed out a sigh of relief then continued getting off with everyone. However, when they got off, she couldn’t find the other two people she needed to see at the moment, Liu Yuxin casually asked.

“Eh? Where are they?”

Wang Yibo heard the question, but he did not answer this time. Before she tried to repeat her question in case Wang Yibo did not hear her, Yu Shuxin held onto Liu Yuxin's other arm while trembling with fear.

“Yuxin… I’m scared…”

Liu Yuxin threw the question at the back of her mind when she saw Yu Shuxin did not act like her usual self, so she stayed still and let both her arms be held onto by Ouyang Nana and Yu Shuxin. 

“It’s ok! Everything will be fine!”

Wang Yibo felt relief when Liu Yuxin did not try to ask again while waiting for Chan Weiting and Wu Jianhao outside. Yes, he did not want anyone to know where Wu Jianhao and Chan Weiting were. The reason was after they woke Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan up, they asked them to look after the girls and get everyone out of the plane first in case there was some malfunction and it would not be safe. They also told Wang Yibo to not let anyone know that they needed to check out the cockpit’s pedestal systems or those they were close to would worry and hesitated to get off. While waiting for a few minutes, Wu Jianhao and Chan Weiting had not come out yet, Wang Yibo decided to walk around the aircraft to check out the exterior, but found out the way it crashed was really abnormal.

“This doesn’t look like how the plane would crash.”

Hearing the voice coming from behind, Wang Yibo averted his gaze, frowned while nodding in agreement.

“I think so too. There is almost no damage to the outside. What do you think about it Zhan-ge?”

“I can’t make an assumption.”

While they kept talking while analyzing the aircraft exterior, Wu Jianhao and Chan Weiting got off and walked toward the group. Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo also finished their surveying and approached where everyone was. When they saw the two oldest adults come back from checking out the situation inside, they instinctively looked at Liu Yuxin, but she didn’t even look at them as if she did not even realize Wang Yibo was lying to her. They felt relief, but at the same time, Wang Yibo noticed the gazes from the rest of the group. They noticed his lies, but it was for the sake of everyone's safety, so no one said anything to protest. Liu Yuxin was nervous from the disappearance of two oldest in the group after waking everyone up, when she finally saw they got out from the aircraft a few minutes later, she felt relieved.

“Jianhao-ge, Weiting-ge! We were looking for you! Where have you guys been?”

“We were looking around and checking out the control room.”

“Yea, but we don’t see anyone including the pilot.”

Jianhao and Weiting took turns explaining the situation inside. Weiting continued.

“But we also find a lot of useful daily necessities, we can use them while sending out SOS.”

“The problem is ‘how,’ the controller room doesn’t work so we can’t use the radio.”

“And this place is also out of range anyway.”

As he said the last sentence, Chan Weiting took out his phone and it showed no signal. Others also took out their phones and every single one of them were also useless. There was sudden silence in the atmosphere, the girls were trembling with fear while the younger boys also felt really panicking. No one said anything for a while and everything turned still until they heard a loud static sound that made their ears almost bleed out; they had to cover their ears, but the sound seemed to come from inside their head, then a high pitched robotic voice talked to them.

[ Beep! Welcome players to ‘Ingenious Island!’ My name is Guide. All of you who have just arrived have been chosen to take part in our survival game. This is a game where you can lose your life anytime, anywhere; so please be aware and listen carefully to the following guideline. ]

Everyone frowned and Fan Chengcheng couldn’t hold in his confusion and cursed out loud.

“WTF?!”

Weiting placed his index finger up to signal everyone to be quiet, then Guide continued with its explanation.

[ Beep! First, the important information for everyone who wants to survive, find the ‘map’ that is placed somewhere least expected around your base starting point and search for ‘first mission’. Second, to survive this place, you need ‘weapons’ because there won’t be only you on this island. To obtain the weapon, you need to pick your own ‘role’ and ‘register’ inside the lighthouse. After the registration, your ‘system’ will set your ‘specialties’ according to your own capabilities. Then lastly, when out of ration and supplies, there will be loot and you need to find them or trade your experience points in the ‘shop’ that can be found in the ‘main menu’ by defeating your enemies. This concludes the first introduction for our newcomers. We advise you not to ignore this message or things won’t end up nicely. Proceed for more clues, there is no time limit. Good Luck! ]

The Guide ended introducing the guideline and this made everyone feel both uneasy and furious. Some of them couldn’t even think straight and couldn’t process everything the robotic voice inside their head just said. Kong Xue’er, who stood behind Liu Yuxin while holding onto a hem of Liu Yuxin’s shirt since the voice inside her head started talking, collapsed to the ground right after listening to the guideline.

“W...Wh...Why us?”

Seemed as though the Guide response to Kong Xue’er’s question, it said.

[ Beep! In case some people wonder why we choose you guys to participate in this game, it is because in this ingenious island, we also need such ingenious people so the game would be more interesting. Try your best to survive and entertain us! ]

After it ended its laughter, everyone seemed to be lost in their own thoughts. Wu Jianhao and Chan Weiting both stood silently with arms akimbo, frowning at the ground, looking really frustrated. Wu Jianhao kicked the sand a few times then said.

“F*ck this sh*t! What do they mean by a game? Are we a joke? Come out here and give me an explanation face to face you f*cker!” 

Seeing everyone in their own thoughts, Xiao Zhan, who was the calmest among the group, walked over to calm down Wu Jianhao.

“Calm down, ge! I think we should calm down first and let’s talk over what we have known. I think this situation is pretty serious. The faster we react the better.”

“Come here! I think inside would be safer this time.”

Chan Weiting waved his hand, calling everyone back inside the airplane, which everyone followed. Except for Liu Yuxin, three other girls in the group were already crying silently from stress, especially Yu Shuxin, who couldn’t handle the new environment. Liu Yuxin, Cai Xukun, and Xiao Zhan tried to calm them down even though they also wanted to cry as well. 

“It’s ok… We will figure things out. Calm down…”

“T… they say we can die in this game… Yuxin… I don’t want to die…”

Liu Yuxin flustered because everyone cried even harder after she consoled them. Wang Yibo saw the girls and just sighed as he tried to start the conversation.

“When I was surveying the area with Zhan-ge outside, we had a hypothesis that this aircraft is not the same one we were boarding on. There is no way it has barely any damage with that heavy crash before we lost consciousness.”

“We also think about the possibility that we got transferred to a different airplane after the crash since no one except us ten here.”

Wu Jianhao said, still with arms akimbo, but he had calmed down a little bit after seeing everyone in their confused state, so he tried to stand his ground. Wang Yibo heard the confirmation, he continued.

“Actually, anyone that plays FPS games is really familiar with this type of scenario. Firstly, we are in an aircraft, then we drop to a certain designated place, we loot for weapons/ armors/ med kits, then finally just start a battle royale whenever we get ready. This situation is pretty much ripped off from FPS, the difference is they replace those fictional characters into real human beings.”

“That means we are walking in a tightrope right now.”

“Yes, Xukun, our time is really tight right now.”

Silent fall into them once more after the conversation, at the same time, the girls also scared speechless they even forgot they were crying. Chan Weiting suddenly stood up startling everyone.

“Let’s go get our map first then we will find our way to the lighthouse to register.”

“Wait Weiting-ge, where is the base it talks about?”

The guys, those who had been playing games like who’s known when, looked at Ouyang Nana as if she asked a ridiculous question.

“It’s here, da-ge”

Said Fan Chengcheng.

In a controller room where a certain person can monitor every movement of the players. In front of him is a big blue screen recording the scene of the newcomers. Smiling mysteriously looking at a certain person inside the screen, pointing his index finger forward that person’s head.

“Found you!”


	4. Arc 1 - Registration: Chapter 3- Roles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Lunar New Year, everyone!  
> Hope everyone can have a great year of Ox and your wishes will come true!

Everyone dispersed to find the map, Chan Weiting and Wu Jianhao even went through the places they had already checked, but the map was nowhere to be found. Chan Weiting gathered everyone again to try and figure out what they might have missed. 

“If I remember it right, the Guide said we can find the map at the least expected place in the base, right?”

“Yes, Weiting-ge, we have been finding it all over the place, but we don’t even know what it looks like, how can we find it?!”

Fan Chengcheng talked in frustration, others also said a few places that everyone might least expected, but ended up with no one finding out anything. While everyone was losing hope, Liu Yuxin recalled something long ago when her dance mentor, who she considered as her second father, taught her a Chinese idiom, ‘the darkness under the lamp. If you want to hide at night, stand under the streetlamp.’

“Won’t the most dangerous place be the safest one in this case?”

Liu Yuxin said that out loud and everyone looked at her. They completely forgot that this was not a simple hide and seek game. Liu Yuxin looked around the places, then as if she figured something out when everyone met her eyes, her eyes then dropped down to her own palms. Everyone also seemed to figure it out from her actions and looked at their own body from head to toes. However, again, it was not placed on any of their clothes; little did they know, Liu Yuxin’s idea of where the map might be was different from a physical normal map they were thinking about. Seeing the disappointment on others’ expression, Liu Yuxin couldn’t hold it in and confessed her craziest idea.

“I know sometimes I have a lot of impossible ideas, but in this craziest game I ever experience, it could be possible...”

“No, you are not alone.”

Wang Yibo said as he came closer to Liu Yuxin and examined her arms, then his own. At this time, everything finally cleared for everyone where the map was. It was not on their clothes, but probably inside their flesh. If they thought about it carefully, it was so obvious, if there was a chip that embedded inside their head which could transmit the robotic voice, there was no reason why they couldn’t embed the map inside any of their body parts or even their heart. 

Waiting for Wang Yibo and Liu Yuxin fiddled around, everyone got nervous and couldn’t wait to try figuring it out too, until Wang Yibo finally figured how to activate it. There were screen projectors that appeared only to the person who operated the system, located at their palm. could see. When Wang Yibo tried to touch one of the projected images placed in front of him, it was a small widget with the contents that he usually saw in game, such as ‘player status,’ 'equipments,’ and ‘skills.’

“...It feels like I am in a VRMMO game.”

“...Yea, it feels unreal…”

Liu Yuxin also figured it out when she looked at how Wang Yibo activated it and was dumbfounded by the strange thing that just popping up. Even though Liu Yuxin did not know the abbreviation but still understood what Wang Yibo meant by a game so she agreed to Wang Yibo's statement then turned to the rest of the group to help explain how to activate the system. 

“There is a blue screen pop up when you touch around the radial artery then the map appears right away in front of your eyes. It seems like there are also other functions too, although I don’t really understand how it works.”

Everyone kept fiddling with the functions, both amazed and scared because they know they could no longer trust their already tempered body. Yu Shuxin and Ouyang Nana again cried in fear, they kept holding onto anyone that stood near them, not paying attention whether that person felt comfortable or not, and did not release their grasp no matter what. Kong Xue’er at this time only can spaced out while deep in thought.

Waiting for a while for everyone to get used to the new situation, Wu Jianhao voiced his thoughts.

“We have been stalling enough. Let’s pick out the role and go to the lighthouse.”

Yu Shuxin looked at Wu Jianhao, appearing to be scared of his earlier temperament, then hid behind Liu Yuxin and hesitantly asked.

“H… How do we know what role to pick...?”

“Want me to help you?”

“Yuxin, help me!”

“Ok, come here!”

Liu Yuxin started to browse around the available roles shown in the system’s introduction content. She also feared it would be too out of her range of knowledge since she is not a gamer and already prepared to ask for help from the rest of the group. To her surprise, there were descriptions for each role, she breathed out in relief and started to read out loud.

“There are a total of five roles, each role has their own different set of abilities and different approaches to win the game.”

Liu Yuxin frowned at the words ‘game’ and felt cheated. She did not even like to play games so she wondered why the game master would choose her to be a part of his absurd plan.

“There is also a description for each role too. I will rephrase the main point so you can understand it better. Firstly, the Tanker is the leading charger, who usually positions at the front to cover the attack while fighting upfront... Sounds like Weiting-ge and Jianhao-ge…”

After finishing her last sentence, Liu Yuxin noticed everyone was paying attention to her. Feeling awkward being stared at so she reflexively flexed her head a little backward and asked.

“Wh… What’s wrong?”

Chan Weiting noticed her awkwardness, he wanted to avert everyone's attention so immediately responded.

“Nothing wrong, I just think it is a good idea to let you read the description and we all think about what each others’ suitable role should be. What do you guys think?”

“I also think the same.”

Wu Jianhao agreed with Chan Weiting’s suggestion. Getting everyone's confirmation, Liu Yuxin continued with the second role.

“Alright, I’ll continue. The second role is the Fighter; a semi-tank, mid-range combatant with a mix of offense and defense capabilities. Their range of attack often varies and has multi-purpose combatant.”

As Wang Yibo heard the second description, he narrowed his eyebrows showing some displeasure. 

“Isn’t this similar to MOBA?”

“So, who wants to try out as a Fighter?”

Chan Weiting asked, then Wang Yibo looked at Xiao Zhan.

“Zhan-ge, you are the pro in MOBA, any suggestion?”

This time all the attention was placed on Xiao Zhan, who was deep in thought. From the descriptions, he already knew what the rest of the roles would be like. He played this game several times with Wang Yibo before and knew well which role would suit them the most. 

“As far as I know MOBA games have a total of six roles, but I guessed they eliminated Mage out since we can’t use magic in real life, so only the Tanker, Fighter, Markman, Assassin, and Support left. For Fighters, they are usually a close combatant, but more fighting range than Tankers. One of the weapons is a longsword, sphere, lance or scythe. Anyone here can use similar weapons?”

“I can try!”

Fan Chengcheng raised his arm up high, Cai Xukun sat next to him surprised.

“When did you learn to use a weapon?”

“...From our acting career da-ge.”

“... Right… I forgot you were casted in a few wuxia dramas.”

No disagreement among the group at all since at least Fan Chengcheng had a basic skill in swordplay during the filming. Xiao Zhan continued.

“I need to know who can hold on to their strength, raise your hands if you think you can fight.”

After Chan Weiting and Wu Jianhao took the lead, Cai Xukun, Fan Chengcheng, Wang Yibo, and Liu Yuxin followed. Wu Jianhao stated.

“Weiting and I did our military services and were pretty much confident in our strength. I am sure any role can apply to us.”

Xiao Zhan felt conflicted where to set a suitable role for everyone, then after some silence, Cai Xukun said. 

“Before that, let’s explain the roles for the girls, and let them join the conversation too, they are pretty much lost right now.”

Then they looked at the girls, who sat aside watching the whole situation with complicated expressions then averted their gazes to Liu Yuxin. When Liu Yuxin noticed everyone starting to pay attention back on her, she continued with the third role.

“I will continue with the rest of the roles then. The third role is the Marksman. This role is an important role in attacking the enemies from a distance. Their main use of weapons are usually handguns, rifles, or bows. Fourth role is the Assassin. This role requires the player’s agility and usually specializes in positioning then strike when the time is right. Their main use of weapons are swords and daggers. Lastly is the Support. They are usually useless in fighting head on, but they can provide aids and supplies when needed. They are usually the healer and logistic of the team. Although this role is weak compared with other roles, it is very important to at least have one role each team so it advises everyone to not ignore this.”

“...Yuxin…”

Feeling the weight from her arm, Liu Yuxin looked at Yu Shuxin, who already began to have teary eyes again after listening to the roles’ description. Yu Shuxin felt overwhelmed from the heavy topic. Never did she ever imagine a weak girl like herself would partake in a situation where she could lose her life anytime. Standing not far from where Yu Shuxin was, Wang Yibo looked at Yu Shuxin in the corner of his eyes and sighed, feeling a little annoyed from her actions. His eyes coincidentally met Liu Yuxin, who heard his annoyed sigh as he looked at them, which made Liu Yuxin feel complicated from Wang Yibo’s attitude toward the girls since the beginning of the event. When Wang Yibo averted his gaze, a thought passed his mind as he remembered that Liu Yuxin is also a girl, but because of her tomboyish style, he completely forgot that fact and recalled the time when Xiao Zhan asked for the one who they thought could hold their strength, Liu Yuxin was also raised her hand.

“Yuxin, did you also raise your hand before?”

“...Yea… I did. What’s wrong?”

“Are you sure you can fight along with the boys?”

“...Why do you think I can’t?”

The way Wang Yibo asked made Liu Yuxin felt uncomfortable, which made her recall her dark past when she was discriminated against for her boyish appearance and style that was not suitable to be an idol in a girl group. A few people in the group, who knew her past well enough, also noticed the tense atmosphere between the two, but no one wanted to add more oil and kept their thought to themselves. Wu Jianhao tried to break the ice between the two as he clapped his hand to get everyone’s attention.

“Ok! Let’s sort out our role and get ready! First will be the Tanker, who wants to stay in the frontline and protect the group?”

“I can do it.”

Chan Weiting raised his hand up without anyone’s disagreement. They thought that if anyone could protect the group, only either Wu Jianghao or Chan Weiting could do it. Xiao Zhan nodded his head; however, he was curious about Wu Jianhao’s choice, so he asked.

“I agree, Weiting-ge is the best fit for the role. How about you, Jianhao-ge?”

“I will be the Marksman. We need someone who has experience in distance battles.”

“Agree! Then I will be a Marksman too. I am a good aimer.”

“Good! Let’s move on to the Fighters. Anyone want the role?”

Fan Chengcheng raised his hand again and everyone nodded in confirmation, then they looked at each other. For a while later, Cai Xukun also slowly raised his hand up.

“I can give it a try; however...”

Cai Xukun had been sorting out a suitable role for everyone silently for a while, since he knew everyone long enough to recognize their strong points.

“I actually already think of a role for everyone, can I say it out? Or this will take forever for the girls...”

He said as he peeked at the three girls who stood next to Liu Yuxin and noticed they felt afraid of his next sentence.

“Go on”

Wu Jianhao also noticed everyone’s nervousness, but he still implied Cai Xukun to continue.

“...In my opinion, we need three Marksmans because we have more than enough melee players. Weiting-ge is the Tanker, Chengcheng and I can try to be the Fighters. Jianhao-ge, Xiao Zhan-ge, and one of the girls can be the Marksman attack in the distance. Assassin requires speed, agility. In our group, the one fit with this category is Yibo and Yuxin. We can have the other two girls be the Supports.”

“And who is this last Marksman you are talking about?”

Chan Weiting asked, but he had already guessed who this might be. From the start among the girls, who were panicking in the corner, except Liu Yuxin, only one was trying to stand her ground.

“Since I know her long enough during my time as the youth producer, Kong Xue’er can fill in the last spot.”

Kong Xue’er was never expected her name to be called out so when she heard her name came from Cai Xukun, she got panic when she heard that she would be the last Marksman. She had to grab onto Yuxin’s shirt, who stood next to her, so she would not collapse on the ground again. Liu Yuxin was also a little surprised, but at the same time not. Somehow she already guessed Kong Xue’er would be chosen but she believed in Kong Xue’er’s inner strength and knew she would be fine. The other two girls felt relieved that they were not picked to fight, but at the same time, they also felt bad for Kong Xue’er who got chosen. 

“...X...Xue’er… you will be fine, don’t be scare…”

Yu Shuxin tried to comfort Kong Xue’er, but she didn’t realize her phrase was accidentally a little insensitive, anyone would have been scared at this time. Kong Xue’er couldn’t handle the pressure any longer, she angrily pushed Yu Shuxin aside and ran off. Liu Yuxin wanted to chase after her, but stopped when she noticed Yu Shuxin fell down and guiltily cried. She helped Yu Shuxin up back to her seat and patted her head.

“I will talk to her, alright? Calm down!”

“Yuxin… I didn’t mean to make Xue’er feel angry. I just feel bad for getting the easier role so I just want to reassure her that everything will be ok since we have you guys...”

“Yea, I know!”

Waiting for them to finish their talk, Cai Xukun approached them and tapped on Liu Yuxin’s shoulder to get her attention.

“Yuxin! It’s also my bad, I should have asked for her opinion before making the decision. We will handle things from here, you go after Kong Xue’er and bring her back. It’s dangerous walking around by herself.”

“Alright, thanks Kunkun. I will be right back.”

“Wait!”

As Liu Yuxin about to walk off, Cai Xukun stugged Liu Yuxin back from her track, then asked worriedly.

“Are you alright?”

“...About what?”

Liu Yuxin couldn’t process what Cai Xukun meant, but she guessed it must be about her role. Although she did not mean it by revealing a smirk but she thought it was laughable for him to ask for her opinion now. If Liu Yuxin was not a tolerable person, she would have protested it or acted like how Kong Xue’er did.

“If it’s about my role, I am stronger than I look, Assassin is suitable for me just like you said.”

After Yuxin said that, she patted Kun's shoulder then walked away. Cai Xukun stunned from the misunderstanding, he was really asking if she was feeling alright. Since the beginning of the strange event, Liu Yuxin did not show her soft side, instead she was very supportive and unyielding which also helped others to stand on their ground in the current situation just from looking at her. Cai Xukun wanted to make things clear to her but Liu Yuxin already got off from the emergency door. 

Sitting with her back on the aircraft, Kong Xue’er heard a sound of someone coming closer. She was not scared because she recognized this person’s light footsteps. They had been together for so long and this also happened many times before. Liu Yuxin walked slowly over and settled down in front of her. She did not say anything except looking concerned, waiting for Kong Xue’er to mentally prepare herself. She knew what Kong Xue’er needed the most now was time. After a long while, Kong Xue’er peeked up to find Liu Yuxin still waiting for her. She suddenly remembered the time she felt really sad when Liu Yuxin and her got separated because of the conflict with their company. By the time they met again in the idol production show, Yuxin’s level was only advancing better and better, and even when they debuted again together Liu Yuxin was the center, and after the debut she became a popular role model figure globally and left Kong Xue'er far behind. However, at this moment, she knew Liu Yuxin had never changed from being the humble, gentle, and reliable person she once knew and would always be there whenever she needed. Kong Xue’er felt better after some flashbacks about their past and smiled.

“Hehe… Just like in the past…”

“Huh?”

Liu Yuxin couldn’t understand what Kong Xue'er was talking about, but she felt relief because Kong Xue’er could finally calm down. Kong Xue’er giggled.

“This reminded me of when I broke down because I couldn’t do the dance right, you were also there to comfort me.”

“The time when you dance to the theme song?”

“Yep! And many more in the past!”

“...Fftt… silly girl.”

They laughed while holding onto each other’s hands. Kong Xue’er wished time would rewind to their busy, but peaceful past. Then if the same things were to happen, she would not ask to accompany Liu Yuxin and Yu Shuxin to the tour and prevent everyone from getting on that Limousine, but it was an impossible dream. 

‘So now, I can just wish this hand will never let go.’ Kong Xue'er thought.

By the time they came back, everyone seemed to be in a bad mood. Even though they seemed to be resting, their minds actually did not. The atmosphere around everyone was pretty scary so Liu Yuxin and Kong Xue’er did not want to break the deadly silence and just find seats nearby to observe the situation. Looking at the current situation, Cai Xukun could not stay silent and voiced his thoughts. 

“I know we are in a dire situation, but in my opinion, I think everyone needs a break for today. We should be fine, since there is no time limit.”

“It will be too late if we start tomorrow, the earlier the better.”

Wang Yibo was actually pretty agitated from the beginning. He just wanted things done the earlier the better. Being a pro-gamer in FPS made his mind work at a fast pace and adapt to the new environment faster than anyone else. However, he did not realize not everyone was the same as he was. Until Chan Weiting tried to calm him down.

“I think it will be more dangerous for us to go unprepared. At the moment, our mentality can’t adapt to the new situation yet, especially the girls.”

“I agree. Moreover, it’s gonna turn dark in any minute now.”

Wu Jianhao added as he looked out the window. Even though Wang Yibo realized the current problem, he also knew he was being too hasty, but he was pretty annoyed at the girls, especially Yu Shuxin, who he thought were burdensome from the start. 

“Right… girls… I should have known better. All they can do is cry...”

“Yibo!”

Xiao Zhan knew what Wang Yibo was thinking, so before Wang Yibo said the next sentence, Xiao Zhan raised his voice. They were once really close friends, but under some circumstances, their schedules clashed with each other. There was a time when Yibo talked about his past trauma with girls to Xiao Zhan. He never felt good when standing next to them. What he thought of them was they were a weak and pretentious human being. He hated them for crying all the time and acting coquettish when they wanted to, but because he was a well known idol, he could not make it too obvious, not until now when his long effort that he built up from scratch to be the influencer in the entertainment industry disappeared in a blink of an eye. Suddenly realizing he was not being himself, Wang Yibo tried to calm down, but instead felt exhausted all of a sudden.

“Fine, I give up! Do whatever you want.”

Then he walked away into one of the private rooms in the furthest cabin as everyone silently looked at his back. 

That night when everyone had fallen asleep, Xiao Zhan got off the plane and found Wang Yibo was sitting near the shore. Wang Yibo’s back looked calm, there was no irritation this evening. Not saying anything, Xiao Zhan sat down next to him as Wang Yibo also noticed someone coming closer. Both silently looked up at the starry night and recalled the time when they were at the filming site a few years ago. Back then, it was the first time they worked together, by the time they became the best of friends, sometimes they would also look at the night sky while sitting on the roof, talking and laughing happily together. Reminiscing their past only made Wang Yibo feel lonesome in this unfamiliar place. Xiao Zhan was worried about Wang Yibo’s state of mind and could not keep silent any longer so he tried to say something to Wang Yibo, but unexpectedly, Wang Yibo muttered but enough for the two of them to hear.

“The stars are beautiful!”

Xiao Zhan looked at the starry sky after Wang Yibo’s sentence, and he smiled in relief.

“Yea, so beautiful.”


	5. Arc 1 - Registration: Chapter 4 - Strange Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I have been busy with schoolworks so I have been late in updating. In actual fact, I finished Arc 1, but have not proofread so I do not post it yet until I am sure it makes sense lol... 
> 
> Please give me some opinion and suggestion too about the story. 
> 
> I have another problem when I try to figure out the general plot... I don't know if I should include some romance or any shipping at all in this story. To be honest, I just wanted to write a story about survival in fitness among these guys to figure out how they should react or what they would do and how they are going to change in this kind of situation (ofc with alternation in personality, I don't know them that well... 😅). I afraid the story would be dried out if there is no romance since I know most people love that. 
> 
> Could I have some opinion about this from you guys?

Liu Yuxin was the last one to wake up. When she got to the passenger cabin, everyone was already getting ready to depart.

“Eh? Chengcheng, you guys are packing up. What am I missing?”

Liu Yuxin asked in a whispering voice to the closest person.

“Xin-laoban! It takes you forever to wake up! We were looking at the map and realized the lighthouse is kinda far away from here, so we are packing up ready for a long journey.”

“How far is the lighthouse?”

“Approximately a little more than 100km in the center of this Island. It would take us around two days to reach the destination.”

“Two days? That disadvantageous, too dangerous! What if we encounter something unexpected?”

“That’s why we are preparing right now. You get ready too!”

Fan Chengcheng pulled Liu Yuxin to her seat while Liu Yuxin still lost in thought. She thought she might have missed something important and tried to recall the event that had happened. She nudged Wu Jianhao stood next to her and voiced out her skeptic.

“Gege! Is it really necessary for all ten of us to go to the lighthouse? Won’t that be attracting too much attention?”

“... Do you have any other better ideas?”

“Hmm… I don’t know this will be a good idea, but let’s divide in groups?”

“I know what you mean, I also thought of that, but let's ask others' opinion and see.”

Then Wu Jianhao clapped his hands to draw everyone's attention.

“I and Yuxin think it over, it will be too risky to go in one group, so let’s make a bet and split us into two to three groups. First group goes to the lighthouse; the second group goes to inspect the surroundings, if possible loot some supplies and bring it back to the base; and the girls… will stay here. What do you guys think?”

Everyone discussed for a while, then Kun said.

“I have no complaints, I also think it is better to split into smaller groups. We can save time that way as well.”

Others also nodded agreeing. Chan Weiting raised his hand for permission to interrupt.

“Then first is the one who will come along with me to the lighthouse. Yibo, Xiao Zhan, and Kun”

Since this is a risky mission, Chan Weiting picked out the one he felt strong enough and the most likely to think straight in a dangerous situation.

“Then next is my group. Yuxin, Chengcheng, and I will look around the area. The girls will stay here since the base is the safest place.”

Kong Xue’er tugged at the hem of Liu Yuxin’s shirt, then asked Wu Jianhao.

“Ca… can I come along? I will learn to be more useful.”

Not waiting for Wu Jianhao to reply, Liu Yuxin pulled out Kong Xue’er hand that was tugging at her lower shirt, then gently said.

“You stay here for today and rest, things have been happening too fast, you guys must have been worn out. We will be right back.”

“...ok…”

Kong Xue’er sulked, but she nodded then sat silently in a corner. The truth was when she requested to go along with Liu Yuxin’s group, it was because she was feeling insecure staying at the base without the guys even though there were Yu Shuxin and Ouyang Nana.

Some others, such as Fan Chengcheng and Cai Xukun, saw the strange scene in front of them but they did not say anything. They thought the way Liu Yuxin took care of others was too magical, no one could ever stop from depending on her. Cai Xukun already knew Yu Shuxin had been too clingy to Liu Yuxin since the time they did the idol production show together, but something about the level of understanding between Liu Yuxin and Kong Xue’er was different from other members. They did not show much of their interaction, but they understood each other more than any siblings did.

After some dilly dally, everyone prepares to take off.

“Everyone ready? Let’s go!”

Chan Weiting jumped out the emergency door after he grabbed the knife at the kitchen counter as a weapon. Wang Yibo, Xiao Zhan, and Cai Xukun also grabbed anything that they thought was useful for a long journey. Ouyang Nana, who was staying silent the whole time, ran toward Chan Weiting and held his arm with teary eyes.

“Ge! Come back soon!”

Chan Weiting smiled and ruffled her head.

“Don’t worry, I will be back as soon as possible.”

Then his group left the place and walked toward the dense jungle. Wu Jianhao also led the group in the other direction after telling the girls to stay hidden if something was about to happen. The path they walked on was less complicated than Chan Weiting’s path.

After watching everyone out of their sight, Ouyang Nana hugged both Yu Shuxin and Kong Xue’er, then led them both into the airplane to rest.

Chan Weiting’s group had been walking for a while. They noticed there had not been anything really dangerous happening so far, so they lowered their guard after a few hours walking. They discussed the path they would take and the only shortcut was going straight, unless there was some trap laid ahead or something unexpected happening. Sometimes they would hear a rustling sound from afar and would hide themselves behind the trees, but they did not encounter anything dangerous like a wild beast or any other players. That was what they thought until once again, they heard the rustling sound, but this time they were pretty sure it was the sound of hurried footsteps. Chan Weiting signaled everyone to hide away, waiting for the moment to get out. At the same time, they fortunately heard the keypoint behind the conversation between these strangers.

“So you mean these skills we obtain from the registration can transfer to another person?”

“Yea, willingly or forcefully work.”

“Ugh! That doesn’t sound fun!”

These strangers ended their conversation and about to walk away from Chan Weiting’s group’s area then suddenly a wild boar ran over both groups with extremely fast speed. Hearing a loud heavy sound from behind, these strangers stopped their track, took out their weapons that appeared out of nowhere and ready to fight. Cai Xukun was the closest to the boar, but at the same time, he was also stuck from hiding away from those strangers. He was in a tightspot, wondering what he should do to get out of the situation smoothly. Then an idea flashed his mind, he jumped out of the hiding spot and ran toward these strangers as if he was being chased for a long time.

“Woa! Run! There is a boar chasing us!”

Chan Weiting, Xiao Zhan, and Wang Yibo were dumbstruck by Cai Xukun’s action, but at the same time, they quickly understood what Cai Xukun wanted to do. The thing they needed the most now would be information, as early as possible. They had to rely on these people even though they were certainly dangerous, and if things went out of control, they just had to overturn the situation with Plan B, and called for Wu Jianhao for help. As they decided to risk it, the rest of the team also jumped out and shouted at the strange trio.

“What are you guys doing? Run!”

The trio were a total of two guys and one girl. They appeared to be harmless but the group still carefully observed their movement from time to time just in case. Unknowingly, everyone ran away from the wild boar together for a long time.

On the other side of the jungle, Wu Jianhao, Liu Yuxin, and Fan Chengcheng also had a hard time figuring out where the supply would be located. The path they walked was surprisingly really rough, half way through the jungle was the mountain’s base. The way up was really steep, Liu Yuxin was having the hardest time among the three from the lack of stamina, but she still kept on going without any complaining, afraid it would drag everyone down. Wu Jianhao had been really observant. He knew her long enough to understand what she was thinking, so from time to time, they would rest for a bit and he would look after her.

“Ge! You are being biased right now! I am tired too! Look! My shirt’s all wet with sweat!”

Fan Chengcheng sulked jokingly as he took off his wet shirt. In fact, everyone was sweating hard from the heat. The island’s temperature was approximately 30 degree celsius, and they had to walk around in this heat was a torture. Wu Jianhao slapped Fan Chengcheng's head to shut him up. Liu Yuxin saw the hilarious sight and sniggered as she leaned over to pull Chengcheng down to sit in the shade.

“Chengcheng, when did he ever care for you? Come here and rest!”

Fan Chengchengg obediently sat down, held on Liu Yuxin’s arm and taunted Wu Jianhao.

“Look at Yuxin, she knows how to take care of me. You only know how to bully me.”

“Aren’t you the one accusing me right now? You want me to kick you?”

“Woa! See See? Now you even want to beat me up! Liu-laoban, help!”

Liu Yuxin couldn’t hold in her laughter anymore and began to tease Fan Chengcheng along with Wu Jianhao. The jokes while taking a rest made them forget the tension they had been building up since the time they got trapped in this so called ‘Ingenious Island.’ A while later, they continued walking along the path, which led to a primitive type of village, but what they saw was a more horrifying sight. There were native people living inside the village. Even though they had two eyes, a nose, and a mouth but these people couldn’t be called humans. These deformed species had an addition of flesh, it was the ears and tails which only found in animals. Anyone who saw them would all think that they were half-bred between human and animal, only science can explain how this even happened right before their eyes. The only explanation they could think of was the illegal crossbreeding experimentation.

Just from skimming through the village, Wu Jianhao knew this should be where they could get the supplies. However, the problem was how should they react to this situation. They were not sure if the native was friends or foes. If it is the latter, then it was a big problem since they knew if they got caught, things would not be easy.

“I think we should not be reckless and wait for the right time to infiltrate their camp. In my opinion, we should act when the night comes.”

Jianhao whispered and signaled the two to turn around.

“Let’s find a place to settle down temporarily first.”

Both nodded and quietly retreated. 


	6. Arc 1 - Registration: Chapter 5 - Decamp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I realize Chapter 4 was a little too short, so I publish another one, also because I took too long to update last time.
> 
> By the way, I finished FOURTRY 2 and I am getting more obsessed with it now that it ended... I really like everyone's interaction. Their chemistry is even greater than how siblings should be that it feels comfortable watching them. Moreover, Yuxin and Chengcheng's interactions are so funny so I had to make a moment between them in this chapter lol
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy the next chapter!

The sun began to set, Fan Chengcheng and Liu Yuxin had been lurking around the area searching for edible fruits. Walking for a meter more and they found a small river, then they decided to rest. 

“Xin!”

“Cheng!”

Liu Yuxin and Fan Chengcheng called the other’s shortcut name that they gave each other when they had to live together with Ouyang Nana and Chan Weiting for a month to record for a reality show. The peaceful memories suddenly surged up and made them both feel nostalgia. 

Zhou Yangqing, one of the housemates, asked Liu Yuxin.

“What do people call you? Yuxin?”

“They call me Liu-laoshi.”

“Why?”

“Because I am older.”

Liu Yuxin joked. Ouyang Nana was eating next to her then an idea flashed in her mind and she turned her head toward Liu Yuxin.

“Lil Xin!”

“...Call me Big Xin.”

Zhou Yangqing asked Fan Chengcheng, who was sitting next to her.

“Why do people call you Fu Xixi?”

“Because my initials are FCC.”

“...ah, it makes sense!”

Then they started to call each other shortcut names, joking around while having dinner.

“Xin!”

“Na!”

“Cheng!”

“Grace!”

“What about Weiting-ge?”

“Ting!”

“Ting-er!”

The meal had gotten even more delicious with these housemates. Everyone was like siblings to each other. They hoped things would stay the same just like today.

Feeling a little lonesome, Fan Chengcheng, who was lying down on the ground, got up and climbed the nearby tree. Liu Yuxin noticed his sudden movement also got up and observed his next move. By the time she looked up, Fan Chengcheng threw down a branch from the tree, so she caught it by reflex.

“Xin! Catch!”

“Aye! Got it!”

Caught the branch full of rambutan, Liu Yuxin unsure whether it was edible. She washed them by the riverside then plucked one and bit it without removing the skin, she frowned from the bitterness then handed another one to Fan Chengcheng, who was slowly climbing down. 

“Hey Chengcheng! I don’t think this is edible… want to try?”

When Fan Chengcheng was about to grab the rambutan from Liu Yuxin’s hand, he paused when he heard what Liu Yuxin had said. 

“...Da-ge, don’t tell me you've never tried a rambutan before. Before that… were you just taste testing for poison then you handed it over for me to try it next?”

“...Haha… I didn’t think it had poison, except the strange appearance…”

“...Wow… Liu Yuxin doesn’t know what a rambutan is! She wants to kill me!! Help!!!”

Fan Chengcheng teased Liu Yuxin for a while before he took the rambutan from her hand and demonstrated how to eat it. They couldn’t help laughing and joking around like two little kids. These naughty kiddos jumped down the riverbed then splashed water on each other and got wet all over the place. After a while, they took off their outer wet shirts and laid down the meadow taking a break. Fan Chengcheng gave her a rambutan after removing the skin then grabbed another one for himself. Because it was too peaceful it felt unreal, Fan Chengcheng suddenly remembered Wu Jianhao had been away for too long. 

“Jianhao-ge has been away for a while already. Did he escape by himself or what? Not that I care, we both have the map anyway.”

“Eh? Now that you talk about it... let me check him out.”

“...Wait! Xin! I’ll go with you!”

Fan Chengcheng put his arm on Liu Yuxin’s shoulders then they walked off. It was already dark outside and should be the time they met their plan soon. However, these millennials were afraid of the quiet and dark places. They just couldn’t wait to find Wu Jianhao as soon as possible. Both Fan Chengcheng’s arms held tightly onto one of Liu Yuxin’s arms while Liu Yuxin, although did not express it, she also was scared speechless and held onto Fan Chengcheng’s arms back. Fan Chengcheng couldn’t handle the silence and started to make a lot of noises.

“Wu Jianhao-ge! Where are you?”

“...”

“Gege… come out already…!”

“...”

“Why is it so dark?”

“...”

“Woa! What did I step on?”

“...!!!...”

“Xin! Why did you suddenly stop? You scared the heck outta me!”

“Shut up Simpson! You’re the one who scared the hell outta me!”

“Ugh… come on let’s go, standing still is more scary…”

“...haha…”

They walked for a few minutes until they reached the village again. They felt safe now that they could finally see some lights coming from the village. 

“Eh? We’re back to the village. Chengcheng, what should we do now?”

“Hmm…”

“Wait! Look at that!”

Fan Chengcheng looked toward where Liu Yuxin pointed at. It was a male villager with the antler on his head carrying a big rucksack. They nodded understanding each other’s thoughts, then silently followed the guy. Both of them noticed the male villager treated the rucksack as a foreign object, and seemed to not know how to open it. He used a knife to forcibly tear the strange thing apart, but there was not even a scratch on it. Giving it an angry look, he tossed it inside one of the huts nearby and walked away. Liu Yuxin waited for the male villager to go far away from their sight before whispering to Fan Chengcheng.

“We know where the supply is located now, should we go for it?”

“Da-ge, you want to risk it? What if we got found out?”

“But we got no other chance! While they are away from here, we have to get out of there as quickly as possible.”

In truth, Liu Yuxin was really afraid of being discovered as well, but the opportunity was right in front of her, she had to take the chance or it would be too late to regret. However, before she could sneak out from the hiding spot, Fan Chengcheng pulled her down to the bushes.

“I’ll go get it instead, you wait here.”

“...Are you sure? I don’t mind being the one doing the action though.”

“Just wait here!”

Fan Chengcheng said as he sneaked away toward where the supply was stored. Liu Yuxin was taken by surprise by Fan Chengcheng’s action. She knew he could do it, but not the courage to do so. The way he acted right now is completely different from the Fan Chengcheng she once knew when they played the escape room together in the past. This felt new to her. At the same time, Fan Chengcheng, who had successfully sneaked in the store room, also felt weird out by Liu Yuxin’s audacity. He had never seen this side from her except her calm and gentle usual self. He also never expected for himself to be the one to volunteer risking himself like this. ‘Something doesn’t feel right!’ They thought.

While waiting for Fan Chengcheng, Liu Yuxin also looked out for anyone who would come so they could get out of there smoothly. However, she did not realize someone slowly approaching her from behind. Only when she heard the rustling sound did she look back, but a hand covered her mouth to prevent her from yelling out loud. Out of panicking, she elbowed the one behind her out of instinct. 

“Ugh!”

“...!!!...”

Heard a familiar voice, she lowered her guard and gently pulled off the hand away to let the person know she would not scream. The owner of the hand got her signal and released her.

“Jianhao-ge! Sorry, I didn’t mean to hit you. Are you ok?”

Liu Yuxin said guiltily, slightly patted on the place she hit. Wu Jianhao ruffled her head, gave her a hug then said.

“No problem, nice reflex! Where is Fan Chengcheng?”

“He is inside that hut right now. Where have you been?”

“I was inspecting a cave I found around the river area. I came back late but you guys were gone, so reckon you guys would be here. What have I missed?”

“We were looking for you, but while at it, we by chance found out where we can get the supply, Chengcheng just sneaks in, he should be out in a bit.”

Wu Jianhao looked toward the storage hut, then he saw a familiar figure coming out toward their direction. 

“He’s out!”

Liu Yuxin also looked toward Fan Chengcheng’s direction, she sighed with relief, glad that nothing dangerous had happened; however, she realized she had loosen herself up too soon. The villager with the antler on his head came back and spotted Fan Chengcheng sneaking out from one of the huts into the jungle area with two rucksacks on each hand. In fact, the antler guy found another rucksack before Liu Yuxin and Fan Chengcheng encountered the second one, so when Fan Chengcheng intruded that hut, he was glad he listened to Liu yuxin and risked it. The antler villager alerted the others with the shofar that strapped around his neck. Wu Jianhao grabbed one of the rucksacks and pulled Fan Chengcheng and Liu Yuxin immediately to a run. They ran for a while but still could hear the sound of voices closing behind. The rucksack was small, but heavy, Fan Chengcheng could barely catch a breath but he couldn’t slow down either. Because the road was really bumpy and slippery from the wet mud, Fan Chengcheng slipped from the high ground. 

“Woa!!!”

“Chengcheng!”

Liu Yuxin was running beside Fan Chengcheng and got startled. She tried to pull him back, but due to the lack of weight, the one who got pulled was her. Wu Jianhao was running ahead, heard the frightened voices of the two youngsters, he looked back but they were not there. 

“Yuxin? Fan Chengcheng?”

“Jianhao-ge! We slipped down the slope, go ahead without us, we are fine!”

Wu Jianhao heard Liu Yuxin’s voice from below the steep slope, he leaned over to check it out, but it was too dark so he couldn’t see anything.

“Yuxin? How is the situation down there?”

“... Only a few scratches.”

“Go hide somewhere until morning then find the way to go back first, I will lead them away from here for now.”

“Alright! Be careful, ge!”

Then Wu Jianhao continued to escape while also making some noises to lead them away from the kids.

Liu Yuxin and Fan Chengcheng looked up the hill, they saw some flickering lights flashing by with noises of shouting and yelling until everything went dark again. Liu Yuxin gazed over Wu Jianhao’s running direction, her guiltiness emerged for being unhelpful when needed, she sighed.

“Haizz… just us two kids again. Hope Jianhao-ge will safely get away.”

“Before that… Liu-laoban, can you get off me?”

When they both fell down, to prevent Liu Yuxin from any injury, Fan Chengcheng clasped his arms on her tightly to cover her fall. Because it was too dark, Liu Yuxin only realized she still sat on top of Fan Chengcheng after the fall. Feeling awkward, she slowly got up and helped Fan Chengcheng sit up while at it.

“Sorry Chengcheng, I didn’t see you. Are you ok?”

“I think so… but I don't think I will be ok if Jianhao-ge sees this...”

“See what?”

“...Nothing...”

Living together for a month before was enough for him to figure out that Liu Yuxin was an airhead and a simpleminded person; even if someone tried to hit on her, she would not even get the hint unless they directly confessed. However, this person, who was slow on the uptake, Fan Chengcheng felt comfortable being around her. Chuckled at his own thought, Fan Chengcheng tried to get up, but he felt a sting at his ankle. Unfortunately for him, even if the rucksack helped lessen their fall, his ankle could not avoid the impact when it touched the ground. 

“Damn… I think I twist my ankle when we fall.”

“Huh? Can you walk?”

Showing a painful expression after taking a few steps, Fan Chengcheng looked at Liu Yuxin and shook his head.

“I don’t think I can walk faster than this.”

Liu Yuxin frowned in worry, then she scanned around the area. Fan Chengcheng did not want to trouble her and postponed their journey, so he suggested. 

“Xin! Let’s not at least stay here, those people are still searching for us.”

“Alright, let me give you a hand.”

Liu Yuxin said as she pulled Fan Chengcheng’s arm around her shoulders, then slowly helped him step by step. It was kinda hard on Liu Yuxin because both Fan Chengcheng and the rucksack’s weight were leaning toward her. They walked for a while and realized the familiar surroundings. Liu Yuxin was excited, they finally found a place to rest.

“Eh? Isn’t this… where the river is?”

“Yea, good job remember where we are with your goldfish brain.”

“...Haha, shut up, Simpsons!”

“Just telling the truth, Shark!”

They called each other’s nicknames when they accidentally gave it to each other a while back in a month being the housemates whenever they felt like it. Mainly because they were competitive and didn’t want to lose to the other.

As they were fooling around, they reached near the riverside. Liu Yuxin helped Fan Chengcheng sit down with his injured leg in the water. The river’s water was cold at night, it helped soothe his ankle’s pain. Yuxin and Chengcheng used the chance to wash the dirt off their faces and limbs.

“Come here Chengcheng, I will help you dress up the wound.”

“Hah? Do you even know how to do first aid?”

“I only learn a little on the internet, but I think I can do it.”

“... No… no... you can’t, don’t break my leg next after the two pork ribs and four coffee incidents.”

“... You saw that?”

“I follow my own works.”

“ Haha… that’s awkward!”

Of course Fan Chengcheng would know about the incidents, those scenes were so unbelievably hilarious he had to rewatch it many times. He wished everyone in the show could live together again if there was a chance. Suddenly, Fan Chengcheng remembered they didn’t have any first aid kit with them, only the rucksack on his back. 

“Wait Xin, we don’t have anything with us.”

“How about checking out the bag?”

Chengcheng tried to find a way to open it, but the rucksack was secured so tightly.

“Now I know why they give up so easily, it can’t be opened in a normal way.”

Liu Yuxin also thought so when she saw how much Fan Chengcheng had struggled to open the rucksack. She felt distressed for Fan Chengcheng’s wounded ankle, then an idea popped up. She took off her outer shirt, tried to find a sharp rock nearby and tore half of it off. Because of the sudden action, Fan Chengcheng was startled into speechlessness. 

‘What is this kid doing? Did she forget she is a girl?’

Liu Yuxin had been living surrounded and competing with boys since she was too young to aware the difference between genders that her mind had set her personality like how a boy would just from her daily observation and interaction in the undergrounded community. She tended to think she should take the responsibility to take care of other people, but unaware herself that she was also just a girl, who also needed to be protected. 

Fan Chengcheng was aware of this when he talked to her dance mentor. Liu Yuxin’s small habit gestures and her sense of fashion also came from him. He sighed thinking how he could help her become more self conscious while looking at Liu Yuxin picking up a random stick nearby and sat down in front of him.

“Come on Chengcheng, show me your ankle!”

“...You...you didn’t have to do that.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine! Your ankle is more important… Wait… Eh?... Is this how it works?”

Face palming at the airheaded Liu Yuxin, Fan Chengcheng wished he could share some IQ to the person who was now clumsily helping him dress up the wound. Even though the jungle had no light, they can still see clearly because of the stars. They recalled the past when they still lived in the noisy city and were busy with work without enough rest, but lights were everywhere. Whether it was the streetlights or when they performed on stages, they took them for granted. Now, they missed the city lights, the peaceful times, and those exhausted schedules. 

‘I wonder how everyone is doing at home.’


	7. Arc 1 - Registration: Chapter 6 - Suspicion

Chan Weiting led everyone toward the bushes to hide away from the wild boar, waiting for it to get away from the area. One of the guys from the strange trio rolled his eyes observing Chan Weiting's group, who suddenly appeared out of nowhere. At the same time, in the corner of Cai Xukun's eyes, he also secretly checked out the trio for any sudden movement. When they felt it was safe enough to make noises, a muscular foreigner started to introduce himself.

"Hi! Thanks for alerting us. I am Jack Reeves, this is Susan Kunis..."

"Hi everybody! I am Susan from America! Nice to meet you, strangers!"

The girl, who looked mid-twenty, Susan Kunis interrupted Jack Reeves from continuing to introduce the last person in their group. Susan Kunis approached Chan Weiting, who she thought was the leader of the group, gave him a handshake and informally greeted them.

Jack Reeves stood behind, frowned annoyingly at Susan Kunis but also seemed as though he got used to how she acted. He grabbed Susan Kunis by the collar and pulled her back before continuing his introduction to the last person.

"...Sorry, that's just how she is... and we also just met the last guy on the way from a group of Japanese, but he is a Chinese named Hu Mengzhou, a newcomer."

"Hi! I am Mengzhou... by the way, you guys seem familiar..."

Everyone paid their attention to Hu Mengzhou almost in surprise from the familiar name, but the one who had recognized him from the start was Cai Xukun. Even though they did not work together before, but he was a famous figure in the entertainment industry. Moreover, Hu Mengzhou's debut song was performed by the girls during his time as youth producer as the extra stage for the winning group.

Chan Weiting was also surprised by the familiar name, and the rest also seemed to realize who Hu Mengzhou was. Chan Weiting asked.

"Hu Mengzhou? If I am not mistaken, you also come with the name Corsak?"

"You know me?"

Although Hu Mengzhou seemed surprised on the outside, in fact, he was really calm and looked almost expecting to meet with them. Xiao Zhan, who was really sensitive with people's emotions, noticed this strangeness coming from Hu Mengzhou, and instinctively put up his guard. At this time, Chan Weiting was glad to find someone he knew beside his group, so he did not find anything unusual about Hu Mengzhou.

"You have been on the weibo hot list search because you have been disappearing for almost a year! How did you get here?"

Chan Weiting exclaimed and covered his mouth with his palm to exaggerate his amazement. Hu Mengzhou frowned and seemingly thought about something, then he said.

"...A year? I was in Japan for a tour concert and today is my fourth day away from China."

Horrored at an impossible thought running through his brain, Chan Weiting looked at Cai Xukun who was standing next to him, who also frowned at the same idea.

"...Hey, are you thinking the same thing as I am thinking right now?"

"I am pretty sure we all think the same thing right now."

They did not stay frightened for long before Jack Reeves interrupted, seemingly used to this reaction from other people. Without anyone noticing, Jack Reeves and Susan Kunis looked at each other and smirked. Wang Yibo noticed Susan Kunis was stepping a step backward hiding behind Jack Reeves before Wang Yibo listened to Jack and Chan Weiting's conversation.

"Well, it's good that you guys know each other, but what are you doing out here anyway?"

"We are looking around the area and got chased by the boar. By the way... Can you speak Chinese?"

This was their question since the start. Jack Reeves and Susan Kunis were speaking in English, so everyone figured they should might as well use English to converse. However, when they talked to Hu Mengzhou in Chinese, the two Canadians seemed to understand what they were talking about but didn't seem like they would speak their language.

Jack Reeves crossed his arms and used one hand to cover his smirk, observing the group in front of him like how a predator would.

"Hmm... It seems like you guys are newcomers as well. Figure your group heading for the lighthouse?"

"...We are."

Susan Kunis, who was hiding behind Jack Reeves, jumped out from the back and seemed excited. She found this situation hilarious how they were going through the 'plan' too smoothly, so in order to keep her playground more exciting, she took her chance to briefly give her unaware-of-danger-opponents some hints, ignoring the alarmed Jack Reeves.

"You don't know how magically high-tech they have it here! I don't know how they did it, but whichever language we are speaking, our system automatically translates it in our brain as if we speak the language itself. The same thing happens when we obtain the skills after the registration. For each role, they have different skill sets and can only be activated if we use the right weapons. Do you guys think they dissected us to input these amazing functions or could we possibly be a robot or something even more extraordinary?"

Everyone got weird out from the excited Susan Kunis talking about dissection, including her teammate, Jack Reeves.

"...Excuse her, she is a weird pathologist..."

Ignoring her last sentence, Chan Weiting chose to ask the dangerous, muscular Jack Reeves instead of the labelled 'weird pathologist.'

"So we can't use the skill if it's not the right weapon?"

"Yea, you can't. Don't stress out much, let's work together!"

"Thanks! Oh, we forgot to introduce ourselves. From right to the left is Wang Yibo, Xiao Zhan, and Cai Xukun. I am Chan Weiting."

Jack Reeves patted on Chan Weiting's shoulder and extended his hand for a shake. Two groups agreed to cooperate and continued to head toward the lighthouse. On the way, Jack Reeves suddenly asked Xiao Zhan, who seemed as though walking the nearest, but in actual fact, he thought Xiao Zhan was the easiest target, so he slowed his pace to start the conversation.

"Anyway, how long has your group been here?"

"...We are also here for around a few days."

"How many people are there?"

Xiao Zhan, who was also aware of the crisis situation, looked sneakily at Wang Yibo next to him. Wang Yibo heard the question, but pretended not to and tugged a hem of Xiao Zhan's shirt, signaling him to say otherwise.

"Only us four... how about you guys?"

"There are a total seven of us. Our group has been here for three months already."

"Three months?"

Xiao Zhan asked, almost exclaimed the question, but enough for everyone to hear. Susan Kunis rushed over as she heard of an amusing topic.

"Right, you guys didn't know about it yet. Seems like each month they will send down a group of newcomers from random countries just to participate or simply fill in the empty base of the last group. We have been here for three months, but according to other players, the longest living on this island was two years. Which means this game has been at least created way longer than that. We are literally in the birdcage of the century."

When everyone was in deep thought to absorb the new information, Xiao Zhan calmly asked.

"...What happened to the last group?"

"Them?"

Susan Kunis smirked and made a throat slitting gesture.

"Of course visiting hell."

Night fall, everyone circled around the campfire and ready to take a rest. Chan Weiting stood up from his seat and walked away from the group.

"Where are you going, ge?"

"...Nature calls."

"I'll go too!"

Wang Yibo actually needed to discuss with someone about the current situation after Jack Reeves started the conversation with Xiao Zhan, which most likely wanted to dig out information about the opponent's base. Xiao Zhan was being careful and lied to Jack Reeves, but things won't be able to go on peacefully if they made a wrong move. However, Chan Weiting gave Wang Yibo a chance to discuss the matter. When they walked far enough, Wang Yibo talked about what was bothering him.

"We should be careful of them. According to my twenty four years of knowledge being a gamer, veteran usually use this chance to lead newcomers into some kind of trap. Jack was getting the information out of Zhan-ge about us a while back."

Chan Weiting lost in thought for a few seconds, but did not seem to be surprised at Wang Yibo's assumption, since he had never really trusted them in the beginning. He stated.

"If I guess it correctly, their scheme is to steal our skills after we got out from the lighthouse. We should be safe for now. Try not to stand out too much."

"Ok!"

On the way back to the group, Chan Weiting asked Wang Yibo.

"By the way, what do you think of Mengzhou?"

Wang Yibo recalled the first time the group encountered the boar, everyone was running away with a frightened expression, except for the emotionless Hu Mengzhou.

"He... is too calm for a newcomer. I think it's weird enough for him to walk around alone."

"Yea, I think so too. We should also watch out for him."

Chan Weiting and Wang Yibo were away for too long, which made Xiao Zhan a little worried. He kept looking at their direction, while Cai Xukun watched out for any suspicious movement from the other group. Jack Reeves looked toward Chan Weiting and Wang Yibo's direction by chance when he heard the rustling noise and said in a loud voice.

"They come back! Then let's end the conversation and rest early, I will take the first lookout."

"Alright, thanks bro! Good night!"

Three hours later, Cai Xukun switched up with Jack as the watchman. The surrounding was quiet, so he could hear the noise of insects. Cai Xukun thought this probably his most peaceful and vulnerable moment he ever experienced. Loneliness suddenly surged up, he took out his phone and looked through the photo gallery, then stopped at the latest photo with everyone in the studio before they took the flight, just to find out later that they were trapped in a sinister game.

"Nice picture, who are they?"

Cai Xukun turned his head toward the voice of a girl, it was Susan Kunis, she woke up from a horrible nightmare, dreaming about her first few days coming to the island. Her group was not a normal group of people. They were the country's most dangerous criminals with life sentences and were prisoned in the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, which had the highest-security in the whole world. Her past was tragic and she seemed to always get stuck in a tricky situation, such as the time when she committed a crime of slaughtering the whole orphanage where she used to live or even now colluded in newcomers' massacre with her teammates.

After waking up by the nightmare, Susan Kunis did not want to fall back to sleep again so she looked around for something to make her forget about the bad things, which she found Cai Xukun was lost in his thoughts looking at his unusable phone. She got curious about what he was looking at, and found out it was a picture of ten people, including the four, in a white studio. The atmosphere around these people were so comforting that it made her envy their relationship which she had been longed for. This only made her want to destroy their happiness in front of her eyes. Then she couldn't help but notice something off when she looked at the number of people in the photo.

Susan Kunis thought and gave Cai Xukun a smirk when she noticed he looked back after hearing the question. Cai Xukun also did not expect anyone to wake up because they should be very tired right now. Then he looked at the picture again and answered.

"... My extended family. They are great people."

"Hm... You have so many friends."

Hearing a weird trembling voice from Susan Kunis, Cai Xukun couldn't help but take a peek, but he didn't notice anything different from looking at Susan Kunis's expression. After a few seconds of silence, Cai Xukun asked.

"Don't you?"

"Why should I bother with such troublesome things? I am more interested in studying gross anatomy. Humans are such an interesting specimen. When I found out who created this game, I really wanted to dissect the f*ck out of his brain."

"... I see..."

Cai Xukun felt even more weird out after talking alone with this emo looking girl. When he thought he might notice some normal part about the girl, but in actual fact, the only thing he found was her aggression toward whoever created this messed up island. He wondered whenever she could talk like a normal human being for once.

While looking through every face in the picture, she stopped at a certain person who seemed different from others that piqued her interest, Susan Kunis pointed at the person who stood near the center of the group. That person wore a simple white shirt and had neat, short, dyed hair being hugged between two other girls by the arms.

"Anyway, who is this person? A boy or a girl?"

Cai Xukun looked at the person Susan Kunis pointed at and was surprised. This person, whose appearance looked relatively neutral, was the only person he once could talk comfortably to among the girls during his time as the youth producer. There was this elegant air that made it hard for others to get closer, but at the same time, no one seemed to be able to take their eyes away. He knew what this person had gone through and they became friends. However, after the debut, both him and her group were busy with new schedules and barely can keep in touch with each other until now.

Cai Xukun turned off his phone and put it away from Susan Kunis's sight, sentimental about his busy days as he replied.

"...A girl. Why?"

" Hm... I can tell she has a different aura from other people."

After Susan Kunis said the last sentence with an evil smirk, an idea somehow flashed his mind as he asked in concern.

"... You are not thinking about dissecting her, are you?"

"Nope! Am I that kind of person who would dissect everyone I got interested in?"

"...You are..."

"Right, I am!"

After a pause, Susan Kunis continued.

"She seems interesting, I want to meet her."

"For what?"

When Susan Kunis wanted to see some panic reaction from Cai Xukun but he was surprisingly calm and stayed quiet after asking the question. Susan Kunis lost interest in teasing him and sighed.

"You don't seem that surprised as I thought."

" I got used to it."

"Hm... You got used to it... What's her name?"

"... Not telling."

When Susan Kunis looked at Cai Xukun, she noticed a strange expression of nervousness, who she thought the person was surprisingly calmed when he was asked about someone he knew was actually only acting like he didn't care and evaded the question. She knew then what was off about the picture. The date was three days ago, and the four people who only came here recently were in the picture.

'Ah... so that's how it is. They lied.'

Even though Susan Kunis knew the truth, she did not expose them, at least not yet.

"Hey, you're kind of interested in her too, aren't you?"

"...Right, but not your kind."

"Too bad, I thought we could be friends."

"..."

Among the people in their group, a person, who seemingly was sleeping, opened his eyes slowly with a murderous intention as he looked at the two people talking in distance.

'So this was what I missed.'


End file.
